King Tides Hit Durban Beachfront!

Durban Beachfront Hit By Huge “King Tides”. Our I Love Durban team has been receiving the most awesome surf pics over the last few days as Durban experienced huge swells from the King Tides. The swells have also been destructive not only to the sand banks but to surfboards too! Many experienced surfers were thrilled with […]

Durban Beachfront Hit By Huge “King Tides”.

Our I Love Durban team has been receiving the most awesome surf pics over the last few days as Durban experienced huge swells from the King Tides. The swells have also been destructive not only to the sand banks but to surfboards too! Many experienced surfers were thrilled with the opportunity to catch a few “BIG ONES”.

Broken Surfboards – Pic: Avishkar Singh

According to wikipedia the king tides are simply the very highest tides. Conversely, the low tides that occur at this time are the very lowest tides. They are naturally occurring, predictable events.

Tides are actually the movement of water across Earth’s surface caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of Earth which manifest in the local rise and fall of sea levels. The king tides occur when the Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned at perigee and perihelion, resulting in the largest tidal range seen over the course of a year. So, tides are enhanced when the Earth is closest to the Sun around January 2 of each year.

They are reduced when it is furthest from the Sun, around July 2. The predicted heights of a king tide can be further augmented by local weather patterns and ocean conditions.

Reports of similar conditions were reported around the world, from San Francisco in the USA to Cairns in Australia with some areas experiencing low-level flooding.

“King tide” is a non-scientific term which describes an especially high tide event that occurs twice a year when there’s an alignment of the gravitational pull between sun and moon. The King Tides are expected throughout the week, so if you have a chance to check it out and take a few pics, please share them with us.

The ‘King Tide’ is not caused by global warming. According to witnesskingtides.org “they are a natural part of tidal cycles but they do give us a sneak preview of what higher sea levels could look like”…and they warn that by 2060 we could experience these every month rather than just twice a year due to sea level rise induced by climate change.

Here’s the Durban tide chart for the rest of the week, if you want to check out the the “King tides” of Durban!